Prof Frans Swanepoel

Anticipation is fundamental to the world that surrounds us – from human beings that plan for the future, to the anticipatory instincts of basic biological systems underpinning the living universe. Human beings and the social systems we create continuously make use of the future to frame our actions, choices, and therefore our agency in the present. Often our framework for the future is based on tacit assumptions about how the future could or should look.  Futures Literacy is concerned with revealing the Anticipatory Assumptions that inform our vision of the future, moving from tacit to explicit, and building up the capability to imagine different kinds of future including those that are not necessarily desirable or probable. In doing this, Futures Literacy enables a more robust imagining of the later-than-now and develops an ability to understand and use novelty and complexity in framing our present choices.  

The University of Pretoria is proud to host the biennial Africa Week, a prestigious event that brings together the greatest minds in science leadership. This year's event, in partnership with the Department of Science and Innovation and the National Research Foundation, will convene the leadership of prominent African and global scientific networks and international, transdisciplinary initiatives. The theme for Africa Week 2023 is Open Africa, Open Science, which will feature topical dialogues on the importance of open science as a global public good and its relevance for the continent.

Our Impact Dialogues is a series that is intended to stimulate bold thinking and debate on important issues that affect African science. The series is open to all –the general public, students, lecturers, researchers, policy makers, and so on. The goal is to have an open, informed conversation about some of the more pressing issues we face as a world today. So far, we have held seminars on Futures Literacy in Africa, lessons from the Open Science movement in Europe, as well as mis -and dis-information on social media.

The African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Food Systems (formerly ACoE in Food Security) was established in 2018 as a partnership between the host institution

• University of Pretoria
• and collaborating partner institutions
• University of Ghana and University of Nairobi.

The ARUA-SFS aims to create an engaging global network of talented researchers to move institutions forward in pursuit of a common goal. It is recognised that finding solutions to the food security and nutritional challenges in Africa is a huge and daunting task, and there are many local and internationally based organisations working in the African food and agriculture domain. The aim of the ARUA-SFS is not to duplicate efforts, but to create a critical mass of talented researchers working synergistically to maximise complementarity.